Employment History

President

Alcalá Enterprises

Owner

Alcalá Enterprises

Class member Raoul Henri Alcalá, president of Alcalá Enterprises, spent more than three weeks doing consulting work in Iraq and is preparing to return in July.He was in the Army for 29 years and spent the last six years of his service heading the Chief of Staff Assessment and Initiatives Group, a military think tank examining and analyzing every aspect of the military 25 years from now.

The native San Antonian gave a presentation to reunion participants on his view of security and the atmosphere in Iraq.

While overseas, Alcalá worked part of his day in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.The other part of the day he worked at the Iraq Ministry of Defense.

"The troops are doing a magnificent job," he said.

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"But today there is not a plan that says here is step one, here is step two and here is step three," Alcalá said.

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For example, Alcalá said, everyone knows where the military checkpoints are and knows people will be lined up there.

"They're sitting ducks," he said."What do you do when you have a vulnerable point?You don't sit there and protect the damn thing."

Alcalá suggested having unannounced daily changes in the checkpoints.He also pointed out that a luxury civilian bus leaves the U.S. military's Green Zone three times a day, always at the same time, and it usually uses the same route to get to the airport.

As a woman in the audience said, "Even a civilian would know that's stupid."

Alcalá praised U.S. civilians who have gone to help rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq.He said the electric power output, although intermittent, exceeds what it was before the war.Most of the schools are up and running, the roads are passable and the oil infrastructure, limping as it may be, improves every day - all due to civilian work, he said.